Half of all children in the US will likely live with an unmarried mother
More than half of all American children will likely live with an unmarried mother at some point before they reach age 18, according to a report issued by Princeton University and Harvard University. The absence of a biological father increases the likelihood that a child will exhibit antisocial behaviors like aggression, rule-breaking and delinquency, the researchers report in the journal EducationNext. This finding -- which holds true regardless of a child's race -- is especially prevalent among young boys. As a result, these children are 40 percent less likely to finish high school or attend college.
Researchers Sara McLanahan of Princeton's Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs and Christopher Jencks of Harvard wrote their report to coincide with the 50th anniversary of the controversial "Moynihan Report," a 1965 study by sociologist Daniel Patrick Moynihan (who later served...
Dr. Alan Cairns | 2/8/2009
